A payment gateway is one of the most important tools for online business. Not only does it allow for accepting a variety of payment methods from customers all over the world; it also helps customize the whole buying process by populating the checkout process with brand assets.
To know how a payment gateway plays an important role in the entire customer experience, we first need to understand what a payment gateway is and what it does!
What is a Payment Gateway?
A payment gateway is a system designed to allow merchants to accept online payments from customers across digital payment modes such as credit/debit cards, UPI, net banking, digital wallets, prepaid cards, etc.
It does so by acting as a connection between the merchant, the customers, their bank accounts, and credit card networks to verify, and authenticate transactions for seamless transfer of funds.
In the absence of a payment gateway, your online store won’t be able to serve the majority of customers, since online customers mostly prepay for the things, they order online. So, if you want your business to grow and prosper, it’s important to invest in a payment gateway system.
How Does a Payment Gateway improve Customer Experience?
A payment gateway system increases the customer experience in a variety of ways. It’s one of the few things that give online businesses the power to acquire and retain more customers based on the sheer experience itself.
Here’s how a payment gateway helps with the best possible customer experience!
- Allows Your Customer to Make Payments in the Method of their Choice: Forcing your customer to pay as per the method of your choice is likely to antagonize them. A payment gateway allows your customer to choose the payment method they like the best, for e.g., while one customer may like to use their credit/debit card, another customer may want to pay via a digital wallet, while a third customer may have a gift card that they may want to use. So, in all of these three different scenarios, the power lies with the customer to pick the payment method of their choice and giving them that choice will do a great deal of good for your online store.
- Secure and Seamless Payments: The number of online stores selling goods and services is simply mindboggling, then why is it that certain online stores perform better while the rest struggle to keep pace with the times? The answer lies in offering a safe, and secure environment with seamless payments that go through in the blink of an eye. A payment gateway system complies with safety standards such as PCI, DSS, and 3D secure, etc., which increases customer trust that the online store is secure, and they are less likely to become victims of fraud, or data leaks. This results in more transactions taking place, and repeat purchases.
- Ability to Accept International Currency: if you are an international seller, you can’t expect your customers to mail in a cheque or draft for the goods or services they are interested in. It’s an ancient way of dealing with payments, as the entire process takes forever to complete. A payment gateway that’s able to accept the international currency, on the other hand, makes the entire buying journey of international customers a pleasant experience, as they can place the order and pay for it from anywhere in the world, and the product can be shipped to them in the shortest possible time making for timely deliveries without having to wait on cheques and demand drafts getting cleared.
- Customized Deals and Discounts: Most businesses get 80% of their sales from 20% of their top customers, and doing whatever it takes to retain these top 20% of the customers makes for a good business decision. Since a payment gateway system can keep track of customer spending, and buying patterns, it becomes easier to create customized deals and discounts for those specific customers. Moreover, even EMI options along with deals and discounts can be given to customers if they have been adding high-value items to their wish list. This will encourage customers to purchase those items and over a period of time result in more brand recall, and loyalty.
- Customized Checkout Experience: Last but not the least, a payment gateway system helps in creating a customized checkout experience for the brand. By populating the checkout page with a brand’s logo, fonts, colors, etc. the checkout page can be given a unique and customized look that’s different from the same page customers are used to seeing across different stores.
Online Payment platforms have come of age, and today’s payment gateways come with a lot of features and options that can directly or indirectly improve the overall customer experience. As a business owner, you must always strive to give the best possible experience to your customers so that they engage with the brand as opposed to shopping from rival brands whenever they are thinking of buying online.
Not having a payment gateway is not even an option these days. Therefore, it’s crucial that businesses partner with a reliable payment gateway service provider to offer customers top-notch services, and experiences that will have them coming back for more.
There is nothing more important than offering a stellar customer experience in a cut-throat business world, where every brand is vying for the same set of customers. And only the brands that give their customers the experience that they are hoping for when shopping online, will flourish in the long run!